Author's Note: It just never seemed right to me that no one called Santana out for what she did to Sam in Born This Way. I think Mercedes would have been the one glee club member to do just that. I do not own any of the characters of Glee.

The glee club was in an uproar at Dave Karofsky's sudden appearance in their choir room, everyone protesting at once while Principal Figgins tried to get them to hear him out. Lauren shook her head firmly with a "No." Puck nodded his agreement.

Finally, Finn summed up what they were all yelling at Figgins. "We don't care what he wants to say!"

Figgins shushed him. "Now I know David has had some issues in the past but I have great respect for what he's doing right now…and I ask you to hear him out."

Hear him out? After all he had done to torment the glee club and make sure they were never accepted at McKinley? After what he had done to Kurt? Sam's mouth pursed and he crossed his arms against his chest. He had an idea that seemed more appropriate than just listening to Karofsky. "How 'bout we punch his face in?"

"Right," Mercedes quickly chimed in from her seat close beside him.

"Hey, that's enough, guys." Mr. Schuester didn't look happy about Karofsky's presence either but they were obligated to hear what he had to say. Besides, Figgins would have never accompanied him if the boy hadn't come to him earlier and asked him to. That was already a step in the right direction from pushing his club members around. "Now everyone listen up!"

Dave started speaking in a soft voice, one that made them listen because they had never heard it from him before. He mentioned how he may have slushied every one of them, and they all individually felt the freezing cold sting of cafeteria's slushies running down their faces again.

Sam still sat glowering at him. Did he really think an apology would be enough? As the new kid, Sam had been excited to audition for the club, to find another place he could belong other than on the football team, a place where he could play his guitar and sing with others that loved music as much as he did. Azimio and Karofsky had ruined that for him when they tossed that cherry slushie in his face. In hindsight though, he probably shouldn't have worn his bulls-eye shirt that day coming out of the locker room.

Sam glanced to his side quickly and locked eyes with Mercedes. She was sitting just as stiffly as he was, obviously remembering how much crap Karofsky had put her through. Dragging his gaze back to Karofsky even though he really wasn't listening to anything the boy was saying, Sam bit his lower lip. He knew she would agree with him on punching Karofsky's lights out but he hadn't expected her to speak out. Besides Santana, he did think Mercedes was the strongest girl in glee club with her powerful voice and ability to work well with anyone Mr. Schue put her with.

Actually, he had been surprised that she had sat next to him today. He'd sat down in the front row expecting Santana, as his girlfriend, to sit beside him. But she had just gone up to sit behind him with a bag strategically placed on the seat between her and Quinn. It was pathetic how easily Santana could hurt his feelings. Part of him wanted to ask her if she wanted him to join her up there but how clear did she have to be for him to see that she was just using him like she used everyone else? So he had sat alone in the front row until Mercedes, Tina, Mike, Brittany, and Artie walked in the choir room. Mercedes had stopped in front of the chair next to him, pointed to it, and then waited for his nod to sit. A girl who actually asked him he minded something. It was almost refreshing.

His attention was brought back into Karofsky's speech when he heard the bully say Santana's name. What did she have to do with any of this? As soon as he felt Santana rise behind him and start coming to the front, Sam's heart dropped. His eyes grew warm when Santana and Dave's fingers intertwined as she stood next to him and began feeding them some crap about bringing Kurt back for the club's sake.

Mercedes could feel the hurt rolling off of Sam in waves. It wasn't hard as close as she was sitting to the boy. It didn't even seem as though he was expecting Santana's quite public betrayal. That wasn't so surprising though. Sam Evans seemed like someone who always expected the best from people. That was probably why whenever people disappointed or hurt him he looked like a sad puppy for weeks.

Still, Santana was in rare form today. Did she even tell Sam that she was helping Karofsky? Did she even care if he knew? One thing was sure, Santana Lopez did not have the right motives. She cared less about Kurt being in glee club than Lauren did about her involvement in glee club. So what did she really want? Tina caught her eye and jerked her head a little to the side. Mercedes leaned forward slightly and raised an eyebrow. Brittany's face was nothing short of devastated. And you would have thought she'd be happy that her best friend was turning over a new leaf. The fact that the blonde girl's eyes were glued to Santana and Dave's hands told it all. Sam wasn't the only one Santana was betraying.

"This is some mess," Mercedes muttered under her breath.

There were still twenty minutes left in the period by the time Karofsky finished his speech and Santana had made everyone in the room taste a little vomit in their mouths with how fake she was being, but no one wanted to rehearse for Nationals. Mr. Schuester stood up and shook both Figgins and Karofsky's hands, whispering his hope that everything said was the truth. Everyone slowly made their way out of the room except Sam who was still sitting in his seat, staring at the floor. Mercedes watched Mike walk over to comfort his friend and left to find Santana Lopez. She had something to say.

Sam snapped out of his hurt daze as soon as Mike Chang sat down beside him, standing up so fast that his chair fell over. Mike touched his arm. "You okay, man?"

"Did that just happen? Did she really just do that?"

Karofsky glanced over his shoulder at the sound of Sam's voice, pausing in his conversation with Figgins and Mr. Schuester to take a step toward him. "Listen Evans, I'm sorry that…"

Sam held up a hand, already walking away. "I don't want to hear it, Karofsky." Once outside of the choir room, he ran a hand through his hair, trying to lessen the rage he was beginning to feel. Part of him just wanted to find Santana and scream at her, yell at her, ask her why he was never good enough, or at least why she had always taken it upon herself to make sure he never felt good enough. They'd only been dating for two weeks and every day there was a new insult about his lips, his hair, his impressions, his interests.

He turned his head at the sound of raised voices coming from the girl's bathroom down the hall. One of the voices was clearly Santana's. Resolving to wait outside the restroom until she came out, Sam started walking toward the argument. He stopped short when he recognized the other voice. Mercedes.

"…realize that you have a reputation to protect, Santana. I do. But you're not only hurting people around you anymore. You're hurting yourself. Whatever you think you're doing with Karofsky, trying to get back Kurt for the glee club, it won't make things work between you and Brittany."

"Don't try to act like you know anything that's going on between Brittany and me, Wheezy. That's none of your…"

"What I know is that you just hurt that girl with that mess you pulled back there and you hurt Sam. If you want Brittany, why did you even go out with him? Do you just live to hurt people now?"

There was a pause and the door swung open as another girl came out of the restroom. Sam watched her walk into another classroom and waited for the conversation to resume. When it did, Santana's voice was so soft he had to move to stand against the wall beside the door to hear.

"I know that you've got a bit of a record helping people come out of the rainbow closet, Wheezy. I heard Kurt tell Rachel once how great and understanding you were about him. Blah, blah, blah. I don't need your help. I don't need anybody's help except Karofsky's. Don't know why you're so upset. I'm turning over a new leaf. Kurt comes back to McKinley with the promise that he'll be safe and sound. You get your sassy gay friend back and aren't lonely anymore. I just know you're sick of being the odd man out in glee club. You really should be thanking me." Sam recognized the click of her lip gloss opening. There was another pause before he heard the clatter of something being knocked onto the floor.

Mercedes's voice was harder than he had ever heard it. "You've done nothing for me I want to thank you for. Go ahead and keep hurting people, Santana. You hurt Sam, you hurt Brittany, you put down everyone else just to keep yourself from looking small. Guess what? That makes you small. And it makes you unlovable. You just keep on being the bitch everyone thinks you are." She jerked the restroom door open but remained facing Santana. Sam inched further from the door. Her voice grew softer. "You know something? I can understand if you love Brittany because you were born that way. Because she's a wonderful girl who deserves to have someone love her who can look past all the dumb things she says like I know you do. And I can understand why she would love you back because sometimes I see how wonderful you can be. What I can't understand is why you'd want to be known as a bitch. Because I know for a fact that you weren't born this way, Santana." She turned toward the hallway. "And if you think you were, you need a lot more help than you think you do."

The restroom door swung closed behind her.

This is my first fanfic so please review!